“The mother orca nudges the corpse of her calf with her snout, hugs it with her head, nips its tiny dorsal fin – all to delay the inevitable.” écrit Le New York Times on January 2. Just like in 2018, when she carried the lifeless body of her newborn for seventeen days and 1,500 kilometers, Tahlequah, also known by her scientific code name J35, is once again in mourning. For several days, scientists have been following him in the Puget Sound estuary, in Washington state.
It all started with good news on Christmas Eve, says Seattle weather. After losing a little one in 2018, Tahlequah, about 25, just gave birth again – she already has two sons. “But a week later, scientists discovered that the baby orca had died.” And since then, the mother has clung to it desperately. In a video recorded Wednesday 1East January and posted online by the Seattle Times, “We see her diving again and again, her child's little fin pointed toward West Seattle.”
Social animals
The team following her is all the more worried that Tahlequah is spending all her energy taking care of her little one without eating.
